For its Volunteer Week 2020 program, Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI), marketer of the Caltex brand of fuels and lubricants, held a series of virtual events, donations and a coastal cleanup. These activities aimed to promote safety and sustainable livelihood among Chevron’s employees and partner communities.
The annual week-long event offers opportunities for Chevron employees to volunteer their time and energy to help underprivileged communities.
“We are very proud of our Chevron employees’ sense of volunteerism and diversity amid this difficult situation. Part of our culture is helping communities and families in need during the pandemic. We hope that our efforts made during the 2020 Chevron Volunteer Week inspire people to do more for others and take care of the environment,” shared CPI Country Chairman and General Manager Billy Liu.
Farming sustainability with Project Binhi
In partnership with HomeGrown Organics, CPI kicked off the virtual event series with Project Binhi, which advocates sustainable urban farming. Chevron plantitos and plantitas gained insights on urban farming from HomeGrown Organics Resident Agriculture and Technical Advisor Francis Alpas, who facilitated the virtual seminar and taught the volunteers the do’s and don’t’s of home gardening.
CPI also turned over urban farming kits to selected students of Hulo Elementary School through the Rotary Club of Mandaluyong-Pasig-San Juan (RC ManPaSan)’s “Yaman sa Hardin Kontra COVID-19” project. RC ManPaSan taught the students how to grow their own crops. To sustain the initiative and challenge the students to efficiently grow their plants, RC ManPaSan will organize a school contest on vegetable cultivation, which will be monitored by the school’s Science Club.
Stitch of hope

The second leg of the 2020 Chevron Volunteer Week focused on livelihood and safety. With a mission to stitch a bit of hope during this uncertain climate, the #StitchMovement taught Caltex Makati Credit Cooperative (CMCC) volunteers how to make a three-layer face mask with a filter pocket.
Chevron partnered with Project Support for Orphans and Widows (Project SOW), which provides rehabilitation and livelihood programs for families left behind by extrajudicial killing victims in the Lupang Pangako community in Payatas, Quezon City. Project SOW Master Sewer Angelita Conse demonstrated the step-by-step process of making DIY face masks during the workshop.
As part of the #StitchMovement, Chevron procured 200 face masks sewn by mothers from the Project SOW to help sustain their source of livelihood during the pandemic.
Saving the turtles one cleanup at a time

Coinciding with the International Coastal Cleanup Day, Chevron volunteers cleaned up the two-kilometer coastline of the terminal in San Pascual, Batangas. A total of 69 volunteers combed the coast on September 19 to prepare the nesting site for Olive Ridley sea turtles.
One hundred garbage bags weighing 577kg in total were collected during the activity. The garbage was composed mostly of glass bottles, metal cans, food wrappers, and plastic materials such as cups, bottles and straws. These materials are known to release toxic chemicals and are nonbiodegradable, thus becoming major pollutants to the environment and harming marine life.
In early October, a sea turtle was found nesting along the shoreline with about 100 eggs. Chevron personnel have put up a cage around the nesting site to protect the eggs from predators.
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